Abstract

Lean Construction recommends concurrent development of product and process by bringing Last Planners into the design phase. While this approach offers opportunities to reduce downstream waste and improve value generation, it increases coordination complexity during design due to the increased number of participants in the design team. In large projects, this increased number of participants can demand a multi- team structure with roles and mechanisms to coordinate the work between teams. In a case study we document the coordination mechanisms of a design organization on a large-scale construction project, being delivered under an Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) type contract, the Integrated Form of Agreement (IFOA). We conduct a Social Network Analysis (SNA) of information flow between people on the project, who work in a big-room environment. Analysis of this IPD-based social network with indices of degree centrality, betweenness centrality, and clustering, yields the following results: (1) the Chief Engineer and leaders of cross-functional teams play key roles in the coordination between teams, (2) people take on coordination jobs, even if it is not part of their formal role, and (3) IPD projects foster cross-functional collaboration. We conclude the paper with managerial recommendations for the efficient and effective coordination of IPD-based design project organizations and ideas for future research

Founded in 1993, the IGLC is an international network of researchers from practice and academia in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) who feel that the practice, education, and research of the AEC industry have to be radically renewed in order to respond to the global challenges ahead.